Ekona

Although there is one thing that owning a Nissan over a Porsche gives you: People actually letting you out at junctions! Oh I wish I was just kidding, but on numerous occasions now I've seen people clock that I'm in a 911 and all bunch up to not let me out. In the 350Z that was never a problem at all, the car just didn't have that aura of "I'm a flash w*nker so you should let me in, you peasants!" that the 911 has. It's irritating as I'm a pretty courteous driver myself and always make the effort not to drive like a typical Porsche-owning ****, but that's their failing not mine.

Sorry, missed that question first time round. Tbh I'm not missing the Zed one little bit right now, but then I'm still in WOW-NEW-CAR mode so that's not entirely surprising. What I am surprised about is that I'm not missing top-down driving at all, which is very weird for me coming from 7 years of only owning convertible cars. In all fairness it wouldn't even be right to compare the Zed to the 911 as the costs are just night and day unless buying a brand new Zed and an early 997. That said, you asked...! The 911 is in every single way better than the Zed. It makes a better noise, it stops better, it goes better, it corners better, it's more comfortable, it's better on fuel, the dealer network is fantastic, and it gets more attention than the Zed did which is a bit surprising. Normally when you get into a car you can kinda work out where you want/need to spend money to get it to where you want it to be, but that's just not the case here. Maybe I'd like more exhaust noise in the future, but for now the flat-six is glorious. If I wanted more power/better handling there's the GT3, but then I'd lose the extra cosseting a vanilla 911 gives you over long distance and also the wonderful PDK box. Outright more power could come from a Turbo, but then you lose the purity of the NA engine. The brakes just don't give up in the same way the brakes on the Zed do so I see no reason at all to touch them, and that's usually the first place I change things. If I could change just one thing on the 911 it would be to swap the RE050As to MPS2s, but that's just because I have more faith and experience in them: There's nothing at all wrong with the Bridgestones. And I'm still waiting for my flappy paddle wheel to turn up, so I've got that to look forward to as well!

So you bought a load of cheap tat and are wondering if you should fit it or not because it's rubbish?! Fit the exhaust, don't fit the crappy induction kit. Exhaust is after engine and can do very little damage if it goes wrong, whereas the induction kit...

Personally I'd get a 370Z over even the TTRS, never mind the TTS. They're both so much poorer than they should've been, and personally I think the standard TT is the best buy out of the range. Shame there's no more V6 though @Colin: I'm not saying that the 370 is horrible to drive in for long distances at all, it's actually fine for that as you've discovered. What I'm saying is that Nissan still have some way to go to capture that premium segment of the marketplace, and whilst their ads highlighting that the 370 is quicker than it's contemporaries was a lovely piece of marketing, it also shows that their budget was spent on the engineering side rather than the touring side. For me that's absolutely where the money should be spent and they got it bang-on when prioritising, however there are times when you simply want less noise in the cabin. An Elise is a perfectly comfortable place to tour the world in, but that doesn't mean it does it better than X car. It's all about what you find acceptable and what you want from a car, as nothing is perfect and we all make compromises in anything we drive. The 370Z is a very good car, and no-one on either here or PH has said otherwise.

subjective, but what's not is it's a bore of a car. A TT being boring is subjective, having measurably less levels of NVH isn't.

Wait, you actually paid for that? After you saw it? Seriously?

TT is miles ahead of the 370 in terms of NVH, sorry.

Dire Straits are awesome, full stop.

That Sunscreen song is the single most appalling piece of 'music' I have heard in recent years. Words cannot describe just how deep my loathing for it runs. It's utterly, utterly dull, boring and patronising. So yeah, I'm not keen.

Not a bad idea. The only downside is that you'll end up with a section of nothing but praise, as people tend to only write good things about stuff they've paid actual money for.

I'm going to remember that next time, always handy to know a friendly pit stop

Jayce And The Wheeled Warriors. And sadly enough I didn't even have to google to check that

Heavy? Hardly, they're wonderfully balanced and on a decent setup you can hang the back end out for hours or nail the apex crisply every time, depending on mood. Well, IMHO anyway.

Sooooo I've now done some mileage in the car and can do a bit more of a write up about it! I spent last weekend in north Wales, and no surprises for guessing that I ended up on track at Anglesey as well. I know the A5 like the back of my hand now, and despite traffic and police it's still a really good road to drive down, however I'll come back to road driving in a bit... So, Saturday was spent on track courtesy of Bookatrack who are still the best TDO I've ever spent money with. Weather? Well, it's Wales, so of course it was p*ssing down and I do mean properly! Track was more or less soaked all day long, and they even had to close it for 45 mins in the afternoon it got that bad. Of course, being an utter hero (idiot?) I still went out and ragged the nuts off a car I barely knew, and a pretty expensive one at that. It was so incredibly worth it though, as when you push it you can suddenly understand why these cars are so incredibly popular when you hit a certain budget. I'm not claiming to be the greatest driver in the world, and maybe I was going a bit too fast for the conditions or people were just a bit more precious, but when you can hunt down GT-Rs if you push on then you know you're in something special. I have no doubt that in the dry they'd walk away from me, but just to be able to slowly reel them in was a great feeling for me, and even the Caterhams weren't any quicker (again, conditions played a huge part here for sure) as I got used to the car in the afternoon. The brakes were immense and even as stock there was no fade at all, and the engine just pulls like a train when you get past 90mph and pulling up to Rocket from Church. The PDK 'box was the real treat though, as being able to keep your hands on the wheel allowed me to concentrate fully on my lines and entry speeds, and I know I couldn't have gone any quicker with a manual 'box at all. There's the rub though: The car was so smooth, so complete, so utterly unstoppable, that it wasn't actually that much fun. Was it quick? Oh hell yes, but that doesn't always make it fun. I enjoyed it, and so did my passengers (one asked me to pull into the pits as he felt sick such were my cornering speeds), but as I also had use of a Caterham in the afternoon it was good to compare the two. I spent most of the time in that sideways and getting soaked to the bone and being uncomfortable in the tiny seat, and yet it had such character that I would've stayed in it all day if I could. As I said above though, I'll come back to the road driving. As always, our little group takes the scenic route back which includes a drive of the Evo Triangle. Now I've driven this before plenty of times in both a VXR220 and the Zed and to tell the truth I was a little disappointed. Sure, it's a good road, but there's better ones in Wales. However, that was before I drove it in the Porker... It's brilliant. It shines. It simply comes alive on roads like this, where the surface is fair to middling and you can feel every camber change and pebble on the road. It gives you the confidence to push on and attack the road, and the sighting of the Triangle is such that you can push with both safety and confidence. A good car should leave you with a smile on your face: The 911 left both myself and my passenger giggling like a couple of schoolgirls at a Westlife concert, and probably as moist too. Honestly, I'm sat here writing this with a smile across my face and I'm running out of words to compliment the car and the engineering behind it. Make no mistake, the 997 is a very expensive car and yet it suddenly now feels like I've stumbled across the bargain of the century. I can't wait to get over to the Fatherland next year and open her up on the roads where she was crafted, as I believe that could possibly define just how close you can get to a cold, Germanic piece of utter magic.

You'd be mad to get anything other than an M3 if budget allows. The E46 is far more involving than the E90/92 as a driver's car as well.

It's gone gold now though, apparently.

Just rent for 3 years and save. No telling what the housing market is going to do in that time so you might not be any worse off.

Not even a contest, M3 by a country mile. Even an RS4 wouldn't be my choice if that was an option instead.

The 370Z has a TPMS? News to me. Have you tried pumping the tyre up?

Water doesn't boil at 100C when under pressure as in a car, so temps of 130C aren't unheard of (although a little on the high side!). All engines will run at different temperatures dependant on their original design, use, age etc. Some bits of the engine will be hotter than others, but I wouldn't like to put my hand on any part when running to find out

Focus all day long.

Beautiful car, very unusual colour too. Hope you have many good years with it mate

Exactly. And without trying to put myself into a hole, I can tell you now for 100% that when it happens it is the single worst feeling in the world. Nothing car-related even comes close.

I never had condensation in mine without A/C on either, even when it was raining. But then again, that's probably because I never drove the thing with the roof up!

Pfft, bloody interweb stalkers You're quite right to correct me though, I certainly meant that they (you) wouldn't be stalking forums looking to trip people up. The amount of people that do post up in the same thread "I've got X mod and it gives me loads more BHP!" quickly followed by "Nah, I'm not telling my insurance, they'll never find out!" is worryingly high.